North of Iskut Grizzlies, Bannock and Adventure

by Forsberg, Tor

• ISBN13: 9781894759427
• ISBN10: 1894759427
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-03-15
• Publisher: Caitlin Press Inc.

Summary

In 1971 Tor Forsberg was twenty-three and her life was at a crossroads. Having returned to Watson Lake in the Yukon after five years in Montreal, she found her art career at a standstill and the party life of a small town much too alluring. Then one day after a particularly wild night, she bumped into Lynch Callison, the father of an old boyfriend. Lynch invited her to his lodge at the LV ranch to "get her head straight." The next morning she found herself bumping along Highway 37 in an old pickup, heading south to Iskut. Tor soon fell in love with the bush and vowed to create a life in the wilds of Northern BC. She stayed in a cabin on the LV Ranch that summer, where she worked on paintings for an art show in Vancouver and practiced her wilderness skills, which she soon came to realize were limited. But Tor was determined to learn about life in the bush, and everyone she met was happy to guide her-- and let her make some mistakes along the way. The following year she staked some land and built a log cabin. Tor lived at the cabin year round with a menagerie of dogs, cats, a weasel named Casper and four packhorses. In the years that followed Tor learned to hunt and trap, skin beaver, field dress moose, make bannock and beaver stew and scent a grizzly on the wind. She also learned to live with herself in the pure solitude of life in the wilderness. North of Iskut is a funny and heartwarming story of a young woman's quest to discover herself, her spirit and her connection with nature.

Author Biography

Tor Forsberg is a columnist for the Yukon News and has also published in Yukon, North of Ordinary magazine. Her prize-winning short stories have appeared in subTerrain and in two recent anthologies, Bannockology and Below the Canopy. An accomplished visual artist, she has also raised ostriches on Vancouver Island and worked in a funeral home. She lives in Watson Lake, Yukon, with her partner, Paul Tubb. North of Iskut is her first book.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. 7
Prologue	p. 12
Early Days in Iskut	p. 16
"Griz Been Spotted Up the Valley, Sis!"	p. 26
Life on the Ranch	p. 36
"Do Not Disturb My Wa"	p. 46
The Pull of the Land	p. 54
Beaverin' and the Second Grizzly	p. 61
McGinty and McGinnis	p. 74
Home Again	p. 81
A Cabin in the Woods	p. 91
Friends in the Wilderness	p. 104
Stumbling on Truth	p. 114
The Wolf Still Howls	p. 123
Hollywood Far North	p. 132
A Full House	p. 142
Winter with a Poodle and a Weasel	p. 152
Spring Beaver Hunt	p. 163
Life with a Two-Way Radio	p. 172
My Third Winter in the Bush	p. 182
Beaverin' and the Third Grizzly	p. 193
Farewell to Iskut	p. 206
Epilogue	p. 212
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